Four more bodies have been recovered from a coal mine in Datong City, north China's Shanxi Province, where a gas explosion occurred early Monday morning, bringing the death toll to 37, rescuers said Wednesday.

Five were still missing by press time.

The blast occurred at around 6:40 a.m. Monday, when a total of 43 miners were working in the Xing'ergou coal mine. Rescue work immediately started and one miner survived.

Rescue workers were continuing their efforts to find the missing miners and investigation into the cause of the explosion was under way, officials said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2003)